San Bernardino County DA rails against Jon Stewart in YouTube video

San Bernardino District Attorney Mike Ramos posted a YouTube video Wednesday railing against The Daily Show's Jon Stewart for his comments linking a Victorville man who died after a confrontation with a sheriff's deputy to police shootings across the country.

KABC

By Melissa Leu

Thursday, December 04, 2014

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) --

San Bernardino District Attorney Mike Ramos took to the Internet to rail against The Daily Show's Jon Stewart for his comments linking a Victorville man who died after a confrontation with a sheriff's deputy to police shootings across the country.

On Monday, Stewart blasted those defending former Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson after a grand jury decided not to indict him for fatally shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown. He went on to list several cases of police shootings throughout the country.

"I get what you're saying there. This is an isolated incident, like the police shootings of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, or Dante Parker in San Bernardino County, or Kendreck McDade in Pasadena, or Armand Bennett in New Orleans, or John Crawford in... What time does (Stephen) Colbert start?" Stewart joked.

Stewart added: "The point is these shootings are clearly not a manifestation of systemic inequality and mistrust between the African-American community and the somehow always justified police-American community, but these are merely an unending, bizarrely similar series of isolated incidents."

In his video, Ramos responded that Parker did not belong on that list as officers did not shoot him.

"They Tasered him after he had committed a burglary and he was attempting to assault a deputy sheriff - a sheriff who was losing that struggle and fighting for her life," Ramos said.

Ramos also said Parker was under the influence of multiple drugs, which caused his death.

"I really believe we need to get our facts straight before making statements like that," Ramos said.

Parker's family attorney Mark Eisenberg told Eyewitness News that it is actually Ramos who has the story wrong.

"Mr. Parker was not involved in the burglary of a home. Mr. Parker was not involved in a physical altercation with Deputy Irwin at the time she Tased him and did nothing to cause her to be in fear for her life," Eisenberg said.

"Mr. Parker's death was a direct result of an excessive use of force and the mismanagement of a medical crises that followed. While he was not shot as suggested by Mr. Stewart, he was nonetheless shot with a Taser gun and died as a direct consequence thereof," Eisenberg said.

Ramos concluded the video by pointing to the need to defend law enforcement officers. He said 2,300 peace officers were victims of crime last year, including 600 felony cases.

"These were men and women that not only protect us, but they have families they want to go home to at night as well," Ramos said.